Induced immune responses in Formica fusca (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Parental immune experience can enhance offspring defence mechanisms towards prevalent pathogens in the surrounding environment. This process of inherited resistance from one generation to another is known as trans-generational immune priming (TGIP) in invertebrates. In sedentary and dense insect societies, such as ant colonies, TGIP can influence colony survival and fitness upon pathogen outbreaks. However, TGIP appears to depend on species and environmental stressors and therefore can vary in intensity, as well as in the molecular mechanisms leading to resistance. Here, we stimulated the immune system of queens of the ant Formica fusca (LINNAEUS, 1758) by wounding or injecting dead conidia of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana (BALS.-CRIV.) VUILL. (1912). The offspring were subsequently infected with B. bassiana, and the effect of this priming on survival was evaluated. Furthermore, we investigated whether immune challenge of the mother queen induces changes in the expression of immunity-related genes in queens themselves and their brood. We combined this information with measurements of offspring size and number. Larvae produced by untreated queens had a significantly higher mortality after infection with B. bassiana, whereas those produced by immune-primed queens survived no worse than unexposed ones. Adult worker offspring from sham-control mothers showed a protective effect of queen treatment, consistent with transgenerational immune priming. Thus, the effects of queen priming appear to manifest themselves slightly differently in larval and adult offspring. No differences were detected in offspring number or size, but immune gene expression levels showed changes, both in queens and their offspring.Peer reviewe

Ancient Duplications Have Led to Functional Divergence of Vitellogenin-Like Genes Potentially Involved in Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Honey Bees

Protection against inflammation and oxidative stress is key in slowing down aging processes. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) shows flexible aging patterns linked to the social role of individual bees. One molecular factor associated with honey bee aging regulation is vitellogenin, a lipoglycophosphoprotein with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Recently, we identified three genes in Hymenopteran genomes arisen from ancient insect vitellogenin duplications, named vg-like-A, -B, and -C. The function of these vitellogenin homologs is unclear. We hypothesize that some of them might share gene-and protein-level similarities and a longevity-supporting role with vitellogenin. Here, we show how the structure and modifications of the vg-like genes and proteins have diverged from vitellogenin. Furthermore, all three vg-like genes show signs of positive selection, but the spatial location of the selected protein sites differ from those found in vitellogenin. We show that all these genes are expressed in both long-lived winter worker bees and in summer nurse bees with intermediate life expectancy, yet only vg-like-A shows elevated expression in winter bees as found in vitellogenin. Finally, we show that vg-like-A responds more strongly than vitellogenin to inflammatory and oxidative conditions in summer nurse bees, and that also vg-like-B responds to oxidative stress. We associate vg-like-A and, to lesser extent, vg-like-B to the antiaging roles of vitellogenin, but that vg-like-C probably is involved in some other function. Our analysis indicates that an ancient duplication event facilitated the adaptive and functional divergence of vitellogenin and its paralogs in the honey bee.Peer reviewe

Finnish DMP evaluation guidance

This guide gives some general tips for evaluators. It can be used when evaluating DMP by students, peer reviewing or when evaluation is conducted by a data steward. The working group hopes you develop the guidance further in order to meet your specific needs and policies.Ideally data management plan will be read and evaluated together with the research plan. In the DMP context, ‘data’ is understood as a broad term. Data covers all the information and material research results are based on (like codes, software, notes, etc). </p

Food choice

Results of the diet choice of either control or infected ants. The column 'time' depicts hours after treatment

Data from: Ants medicate to fight disease

Parasites are ubiquitous, and the ability to defend against these is of paramount importance. One way to fight diseases is self-medication, which occurs when an organism consumes biologically active compounds to clear, inhibit or alleviate disease symptoms. Here, we show for the first time that ants selectively consume harmful substances (Reactive Oxygen Species, ROS) upon exposure to a fungal pathogen, yet avoid these in the absence of infection. This increased intake of ROS, while harmful to healthy ants, leads to higher survival of exposed ants. The fact that ingestion of this substance carries a fitness cost in the absence of pathogens rules out compensatory diet choice as the mechanism, and provides evidence that social insects medicate themselves against fungal infection, using a substance that carries a fitness cost to uninfected individuals

R scripts

R scripts used for final analysis of the data

Spore Viability

Viability of spores after being in contact with varying concentrations of ROS. Spores were counted as either alive or dead in one 'field of view'

ROS concentration in body

ROS concentration measurements. Note that these are the raw values straight from the spectrophotometer

Survival data

Survival of ants fed on either control or ROS diet, and afterwards being exposed to either Fungus or Control

Suomalainen DMP:n arviointikriteeristö

This evaluation guide was created by the Tuuli working group and it is is loosely based on Data Management Plan Evaluation Rubric by Science Europe published in Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management - Extended Edition (2021), pages 31–49. Localisation work is done based on: General Finnish DMP guidance (Version 2020). Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3630309Non peer reviewe